Fake news campaign: 'People fleeing Israel'
In battle over public opinion, Hezbollah's Al Manar claims Israel suffered great losses in rocket attack on Golan and is hiding it, while photos on social media claim to show Israelis hiding in shelters in north; Iranian media claims rockets hit sensitive sites, 'causing panic in Israel.'
Israel says Iran suffered a severe blow to its infrastructures in Syria, but Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran's media show a completely different picture.
Hezbollah's Al-Manar television station took "fake news" to the next level on Thursday, reporting Israel had suffered many losses which it preferred to keep quiet.
"During the attack on Israel, numerous of its people were killed and Israel chooses not to report it," Al-Manar claimed.
Al-Manar brought in commentators and experts on Israel to its studio to repeat the fraudulent news, who also claimed that Israel was surprised by the Syrian response.
One of the commentators dubbed Wednesday night's events as a limited war. "It was a lesson for the Zionist entity's officials that they can't think of themselves as supermen," the commentator said.
Another commentator opined that "The enemy has realized that Syria's skies won't be its playground. The enemy won't be able to move across Syria's skies as it did in the past."
"Syria's missiles retaliation proved strategic changes are in the making and demonstrated Syria's resiliency and its ability to recover. Its deterrence force surprised the enemy," another expert went on to say.
Lebanon's Al Mayadeen television channel posted pictures of Israeli citizens allegedly hiding from Syrian missiles on its Twitter page. Al Mayadeen neglected to mention the pictures are not exactly recent and might not portray Israelis at all.
.jpg "'Israelis' hiding in shelters in the Golan")
One picture published in Arab media showed Israelis—some of them wearing skullcaps—hiding inside a big concrete pipe at nighttime. The picture was actually taken during Operation Protective Edge in daylight and was badly photoshopped to make it appear to be nighttime.
Syrian media spent the past 24 hours praising and glorifying the regime of President Bashar Assad.
"The Zionist enemy couldn't face another powerful blow like the one it suffered yesterday. The planes at Ben Gurion Airport can't keep up with the demand created as people seek to escape Israel," Syrian media reports claimed.
"Syria is the most powerful country in the world, thanks to the great Assad and his army," news anchors boasted.
The Syrian regime still insists it was the one that launched the missiles fired from Syria's territory, thus rejecting Israel's version that Iran's Revolutionary Guards were behind the attack on the Golan.
In Iran, the Al-Alam news network claimed the missiles launched from Syria hit extremely sensitive targets across the Golan Heights and "caused panic in Israel." Pictures posted to social media by supporters of the Syrian regime purport to show Israel's Iron Dome defense system failing in intercepting the missiles.
The photo was accompanied by the caption "Your Iron Dome fell," written in Arabic and Hebrew.
The Syrian news agency SANA posted photos showing normal, peaceful daily routine in the Quneitra and Damascus area.
.jpg "Life back to normal in Syria")
Moreover, Syria rejected Israeli claims it sustained many losses, insisting only three people were killed in the Israeli strikes.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights—an independent war monitor affiliated with the Syrian opposition—reported at least 23 people were killed.
Syria's Army Command also claimed that "thanks to our air defense system's preparedness and abilities, we managed to intercept many of the Israeli missiles directed at some of our military sites at dawn. These attacks have no purpose other than bolstering the terror groups operating in the country."
